All articles by Michael Cross – Page 116
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News
Planning Bill under fire
Two key parts of the government’s planning reforms have come under attack from environmental law experts this week. Members of the UK Environmental Law Association’s (UKELA) planning and sustainable development working party described some provisions of the Planning Bill – which has been delayed in ...
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Barking eyes new legal markets
Local government will take a further step towards entering the open legal services market this week when the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham announces the reorganisation of its legal team along private sector lines. The council has lured three senior ‘partners’ from neighbouring authorities: ...
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Super regulator names members
Solicitors will make up one-third of the members of the new overarching regulator of legal services, the Ministry of Justice has disclosed. The new Legal Services Board was set up under the 2007 Legal Services Act to simplify regulation and ‘put the consumer first’. ...
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GMC witness prescription
The medical profession’s regulator will publish new rules this week to ensure doctors acting as expert witnesses understand their overriding duty is to the administration of justice. The General Medical Council’s new guidelines appear at a time of crisis in the witness system, following complaints about ...
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Solicitor slaps writ on county court
Frustration at the service lawyers receive from some court administrators was further manifested this month when a Surrey solicitor filed a High Court order to force a county court to list a hearing on a landlord-tenant case. Clive Wismayer, of Wismayers Solicitors, Great Bookham, said ...
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US legislators resist libel laws
‘UK should not impose free-speech standards on rest of world’ Washington will make moves to prevent the enforcement of English libel judgments against American authors unless UK defamation laws are brought into line with those of the US, a New York State legislator warned this week. ...
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Report calls for data transparency
A fast-track procedure for removing barriers to the sharing of personal data between organisations is among legal reforms urged in a wide-ranging review on data protection commissioned by the Prime Minister. The review, by Information Commissioner Richard Thomas and Dr Mark Walport, director of the ...
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SFO in drugs appeal
The Serious Fraud Office’s reputation for legal competence is under scrutiny following the latest setback to a high-profile prosecution. A Crown Court judge last week refused to let the office amend an indictment on criminal offences relating to contested allegations of anti-competitive behaviour over the ...
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Call for more 'users of justice' on CJC
The Civil Justice Council should have more ‘users’ of justice and fewer lawyers among its members, an independent review has recommended. Jonathan Spencer’s review, published this week by the Ministry of Justice, says the concept of the council is sound, and commends its ‘essential mediating ...
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Titan prison plans under attack
The government’s plans to build its way out of prison overcrowding came under attack last week from the authors of a seven-year investigation into the criminal justice system.
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Law reform programme unveiled
The Lord Chancellor will be forced to update Parliament annually on plans to implement Law Commission recommendations, the commission’s chair said this week. Sir Terence Etherton told journalists the proposal was a sign of a closer working relationship between the commission and government. ...
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Watchdog may hear grievances
Citizens with grievances against public bodies will have easier access to ombudsmen under reforms to the laws governing redress proposed by the Law Commission this week. If adopted, the proposals would allow citizens to approach the Parliamentary Ombudsman on their own account instead of via ...
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JAC targets top firms for recruits
The Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) is targeting major law firms in its campaign to persuade more solicitors to become judges, a senior commissioner said this week. Frances Kirkham, JAC commissioner in charge of the current selection exercise for recorders, said that firms, as well as ...
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Whistle-blow code defence
A new code of practice on whistle-blowing could provide a defence for companies facing legal or regulatory penalties, one of its authors said this week. Guy Dehn, head of the charity Public Concern at Work, said that implementing the first British Standards code on arrangements ...
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‘End judicial shortlists’
A judicial appointment process that leaves candidates in ‘professional limbo’ while waiting for a vacancy to arise should be abolished, according to the Judicial Appointments Commission.
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Charity chief says law has ‘ossified’
The head of the new Charity Tribunal hopes the body will speed up the evolution of charity law to keep pace with developments in the third sector.
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Legal sector leads the way on cutting carbon footprint
Legal firms lead the professional services sector in investigating their carbon footprint, according to a league table published this week by an industry forum.
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Review: me and my shadow
Crying all the way to the bank: Liberace v Cassandra & Daily Mirror Revel Barker Revel Barker, £15.99 It was the titanic clash between bluff, folksy 1940s British decency and glitzy, globetrotting 1950s celebrity, played out in the High Court in London. Guess who won. In its way, the 1959 ...
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People’s peers
Anyone for ping-pong? Yes, the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders bill is back in the Lords this week, for the upper house to pick over its wounded amendments following their savaging last week in the Commons. In the end, of course, the Commons will get its way. As ...